Outlook maintenance

[dogberry]

I have just had an extraordinarily long (Outlook 2010) databinding session, which had me very worried. I have seen it many times before, but I would be interested to know a little more about it and why it would take so long for a single session.

While I am at it, I might as well ask about compacting Outlook. Is this still done in the best circles, or is it out of fashion?

I miss the backup capability that was available for Outlook, but am happy to report that I have portable external drives with data backup capabilities that will back it up at least once a day so long as I remember to plug the thing in

[ruirib]

I try to never let my "live" pst file get too big. I use around 300 MB as the current limit (2010) as I understand this was a problem on the beta version of outlook 2010, which I used. To avoid this I archive and compact whenever needed. Archiving brings the problem of searching the multiple archive pst files (I use one per year), but that was solved with the paid version of Xobni, which beats, hands down, the native use of search in Outlook (and has added benefits in functionality).

[JoeP517]

When Microsoft changed to using Unicode data files by default, the old size limits for Outlook were greatly increased. The old ANSI PST files were limited to 2GB. In Outlook 2003 & 2007 the Unicode PST files are configured to be limited to 20GB. In Outlook 2010 the configured limit is 50GB. The Unicode PST file size limits may be changed by editing the registry.

See The file size limits are larger in Outlook 2010 for more information.

In general, I don't worry about file compaction with Outlook 2010. It happens in the background, automatically. You can perform a manual compaction if you feel the need. See How to compact PST & OST files.

Joe

[dogberry]

Thank you both for your contributions. Search Emails is one thing I find Copernic Desktop Search does well, and I was not aware that compaction took place in the background, so I am reassured on that point.

[ruirib]

In general, I don't worry about file compaction with Outlook 2010. It happens in the background, automatically. You can perform a manual compaction if you feel the need. See How to compact PST & OST files.

Joe

You are sure about this automatic compaction? This hasn't been my experience at all.

[JoeP517]

You are sure about this automatic compaction? This hasn't been my experience at all.

See the linked article. Outlook must be running. Little else can be going on.

Joe

[ruirib]

Ok, thanks, Joe. I often leave Outlook as the only app running on my laptop. Will pay greater attention to my pst file size.

[JoeP517]

If you let Outlook decide you may not notice much difference. see Compacting PST file.

Once you read the article you might (and probably should) come to the conclusion that frequent compaction is a waste of time and resources. You are just forcing Outlook to grow the PST file unnecessarily. The "compulsion" to compact is probably left over from the pre-Outlook 2003 days of the ANSI PST file and its 2GB size limit.

Joe

[ruirib]

If you let Outlook decide you may not notice much difference. see Compacting PST file.

Once you read the article you might (and probably should) come to the conclusion that frequent compaction is a waste of time and resources. You are just forcing Outlook to grow the PST file unnecessarily. The "compulsion" to compact is probably left over from the pre-Outlook 2003 days of the ANSI PST file and its 2GB size limit.
Joe

I think it's not only the issues with file size, but also the impression that performance degraded with file size, on previous versions (and even the 2010 beta). I noticed today that my live pst file was around 800 MB and hadn't noticed any issues with performance.

Thanks, Joe.